ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the difference in daily time commitment between parents and non-parents, and between families with different numbers and ages of children. A couple begins to allocate time to child care when a first child is born. Families with an infant and one additional child allocate about an hour a day more time to child care than families with just one infant. The presence of a first child has a major impact upon household time in unpaid work as a primary activity. The term 'total productive activity' is used interchangeably with 'total paid and unpaid work', and is an aggregate measure that includes paid work, domestic labour and child care. Compared to households without resident children, every family configuration is associated with a substantially increased time allocation to unpaid work. Male participation in child care is so subsidiary to female it hardly contributes to household allocation of time to direct child care activities.
